By Bethany Schaufler-Biback
Context
When answering what the role of the audience is, participants were often hesitant to answer, signifying the demanding nature of the question. After some pauses, the participants shared their definition. As the interviews continued, on numerous occasions the participants’ responses to following questions began to challenge their original definition of the audience role. Similar to contradictions about audience role, there were also many notable contradictions when discussing what audiences look for/want in a performance. For instance, some audience members would state that they want a dark and silent theatre, feeling as though the show is solely for them, but they also didn’t want to feel singled out, alone, and hoped to feel the energy from having company in the theatre.
Implications
I posit that these contradictions are a product of the complex theatrical relationship that is created during a performance. In the theatrical contract, the audience role is everchanging, facing variation dependent upon production structure, audience preparedness, and past experience. Acknowledging the various contradictions made by audience members brings attention to potential challenges faced by theatre creators when considering how their performances will be received. Witnessing such frequent contradictions calls into question whether or not audiences are able to isolate their specific wants across so many genres of theatre. Of course, even if audiences were able to determine what they specifically want from theatre, including what their role would be (i.e., seeking out a more participatory role), many patrons may not have access to theatre that fulfils their preferred audience experience.
I also think this greatly ties into how shows are advertised, and what sorts of audiences are being drawn to different performances. Knowing that many audience members are frequently unaware of what they exactly want from a theatre performance, this begs the question of whether or not audiences are attending the best performances suited for them. Many theatre companies fail to clearly advertise their performances, leaving many audience members in the dark about what to expect from the theatre they are attending. How are audiences able to find performances that contain the elements that they wish to see in a performance? How does the potential discrepancies of this issue reflect on the reception and reviews of these performances?
Conclusion
Overall, I think acknowledging the ways in which audiences contradict themselves offers a lot of insight and potential applications to theatre reception, theatre creation, arts criticism, and theatre marketing